Encyclopedia Britannica to Stop Printing Encyclopedias

[Coito ergo sum]

http://chicago.cbslocal.com/2012/03/13/ ... -editions/

After 244 years it is by-by Britannica. No more print edition.

I would love to peruse volumes from the 1760's or 1770's. I wonder who has copies? Apparently, replica 1st editions can be purchased for a couple of hundred dollars on Amazon.

The Britannica was the idea of Colin Macfarquhar, a bookseller and printer, and Andrew Bell, an engraver, both of Edinburgh. They conceived of the Britannica as a conservative reaction to the French Encyclopédie of Denis Diderot (published 1751–1766), which was widely viewed as heretical. Ironically, the Encyclopédie had begun as a French translation of the popular English encyclopedia, Cyclopaedia published by Ephraim Chambers in 1728

[Svartalf]

Internet has made another victim.
While I never could handle a paper encyclopedia, I still miss the 10 volume encyclopedic Larousse dictionary (1964 edition, an heirloom from my father) that I used to have before I moved to Paris.... spent I don't know how many hours in there.

Of course, their entry on Brian Boru was faulty, and the wikipedia page is MUCH better...

[Rum]

I tried selling encyclopedias door to door when I was between Uni courses at the age of about 21. I was utterly hopeless at it I'm afraid and quit after a week. However the books were nice to read!

[klr]

I'm surprised it took them so long to bow to the inevitable.

I tried selling encyclopedias door to door when I was between Uni courses at the age of about 21. I was utterly hopeless at it I'm afraid and quit after a week. However the books were nice to read!

"Fringe benefits"

[maiforpeace]

Every evening after dinner, while growing up the kids would take turns picking out an encyclopedia and my mother would encourage us to discuss a topic of interest we found in there - that's one of the ways I learned about the world around me.

The switch from Encyclopedia Britinnica to Wiki was so organic, but being reminded of this memory of my childhood makes me sad to know they won't be printing them anymore.

[JimC]

Gutenberg is turning in his grave...

[Svartalf]

Gutenberg is turning in his grave...

Bugger gutenber, that guy conspired to poison minds with lead and antimony.

[Feck]

You can't build a book shelf from Wiki ,or use Wiki to hold stuff flat while the glue sets .

[Svartalf]

U bild shelsfs from encyclopedia? that's rather massiev furniturement

[JimC]

Perhaps I should have said that Diderot is turning in his grave, to give credit where credit is due...

Today in Physics, I was lauding French physicists...

Ampere, Coulomb, Curie, Bequerel...

[Hermit]

Internet has made another victim.

Yesssssssssss! Fuck those mercenary, blackmailing arseholes.

One day somewhere in the early 1990s at a big computer show in Sydney I saw their stand. The EB had a 3-CD set of its entire print-based publication on offer. I already had a set on one of my bookcases, but was already well and truly aware of the advantages of electronic searching, so I checked it out. Keenly. The paper version was sold for $2100 in Australia at the time. The price tag for a set on compact disc was - want to have a guess? Yes, it was $2400. I said to the rep: "That is outrageous, considering the hugely lower production, warehousing and transportation costs of three discs compared to 80 kilos of printed, hardbound paper." His reply? "You ought to be ashamed of yourself for not buying the discs for the sake of your children. Is that how little you care for their future?"

A short while later I obtained a copied set for $25, and eventually I bought a legal copy on DVD from them for $129. Then Wikipedia started...

I really do hope the cunts go broke.

[Rum]

Internet has made another victim.

Yesssssssssss! Fuck those mercenary, blackmailing arseholes.

One day somewhere in the early 1990s at a big computer show in Sydney I saw their stand. The EB had a 3-CD set of its entire print-based publication on offer. I already had a set on one of my bookcases, but was already well and truly aware of the advantages of electronic searching, so I checked it out. Keenly. The paper version was sold for $2100 in Australia at the time. The price tag for a set on compact disc was - want to have a guess? Yes, it was $2400. I said to the rep: "That is outrageous, considering the hugely lower production, warehousing and transportation costs of three discs compared to 80 kilos of printed, hardbound paper." His reply? "You ought to be ashamed of yourself for not buying the discs for the sake of your children. Is that how little you care for their future?"

A short while later I obtained a copied set for $25, and eventually I bought a legal copy on DVD from them for $129. Then Wikipedia started...

I really do hope the cunts go broke.

Interesting that their patter didn't change much then. One of the reasons I was so bad at selling them door to door was that we had to trot out a pre-prepared script (it even marked where you should chuckle!). The gist of the spiel was that you were letting your kids and their future down big time if you didn't buy our wonderful and life enhancing encyclopedias!

[Hermit]

Internet has made another victim.

Yesssssssssss! Fuck those mercenary, blackmailing arseholes.

One day somewhere in the early 1990s at a big computer show in Sydney I saw their stand. The EB had a 3-CD set of its entire print-based publication on offer. I already had a set on one of my bookcases, but was already well and truly aware of the advantages of electronic searching, so I checked it out. Keenly. The paper version was sold for $2100 in Australia at the time. The price tag for a set on compact disc was - want to have a guess? Yes, it was $2400. I said to the rep: "That is outrageous, considering the hugely lower production, warehousing and transportation costs of three discs compared to 80 kilos of printed, hardbound paper." His reply? "You ought to be ashamed of yourself for not buying the discs for the sake of your children. Is that how little you care for their future?"

A short while later I obtained a copied set for $25, and eventually I bought a legal copy on DVD from them for $129. Then Wikipedia started...

I really do hope the cunts go broke.

Interesting that their patter didn't change much then. One of the reasons I was so bad at selling them door to door was that we had to trot out a per-prepared script (it even marked where you should chuckle!). The gist of the spiel was that you were letting your kids and their future down big time if you didn't buy our wonderful and life enhancing encyclopedias!

Hence my use of the word 'blackmail', and my wish that they eventually go out of business. A company that systematically resorts to that in their greed for profits ought to be put out of their victims' misery.

[Gawdzilla Sama]

I had a set of World Book encyclopedia, 1965 edition, in storage until my sister decided to have a yard sale and cut the lock looking for goodies.

[Bella Fortuna]

When was the last time you know of someone actually purchasing encyclopedias... 30 years ago? I enjoyed looking at such things as a kid (we had loads of Time-Life sets, which were similarly broad and immediately outdated when printed!) but the inherent obsolescence always made me wonder why people would ever buy them...